105. Gadzooks! Coffee Ceremony

While enjoying a Thanksgiving family gathering at my mother’s house, I discovered a 1945 edition of Emily’s Post Etiquette on her bookshelf. On page 409 was a coffee ceremony “fad” I hadn’t come across for my book, Coffee Time (cowritten by Helene Hovanec). I’m including it here in case it’s of use for an upcoming holiday or bankruptcy party:

For this ceremony the chef-hosts come into the supper room. The first places a small high table in the center of the room. On this another places a big bowl; the third fills the bottom of it with spices. The first again pours in the brandy. All the lights in the room are turned off and the brandy and spices lighted. Then carefully, little by little, so as not to quench the flame, the coffee is poured into the mixture, which is continuously lifted with a silver ladle whose every motion intensifies the flame until finally it burns out. The lights of the room are then turned up again, logs thrown onto the fire, and the coffee ladled into cups.